I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £386,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1973, for pensions, superannuation, compensation (including workmen's compensation), and additional and other statutes; extrastatutory pensions, allowances and gratuities awarded by the Minister for Finance; fees to medical referees and occasional fees to doctors; compensation and other payments in respect of personal injuries, et cetera.
This sum is required to meet expenditure under subheads D. and F. of the Vote, subhead D. being additional allowances and gratuities in respect of established officers, and subhead F, pensions, allowances and gratuities in respect of unestablished officers. The bulk of expenditure on both of these subheads relates to lump sum payments to civil servants or their dependants in the form of retirement gratuities, death gratuities and marriage gratuities to female officers who resigned from the Civil Service on marriage. The number of officers qualified to receive these awards vary considerably from year to year, making it difficult to predict expenditure in advance with any degree of accuracy. This is particularly so in the case of subhead F. which provides for expenditure under the new pensions scheme for non-established State employees. This scheme was only finalised in 1971 and as yet no definite trends in numbers dying or retiring are discernible.